Young children quickly understand that the shortest way between two points is a straight line. However, the path thus followed can be a very dangerous one. Indeed, children who travel to school in a school bus will often enter their school bus or exit therefrom by walking straight ahead of the school bus, with the bus hood being higher than the children. This will cause the bus driver not to see them in front of his vehicle, and can thus result in the bus hitting a school student or running him over.
To avoid such dire consequences, it is known to install a fence on the front end of the school bus to prevent the children from walking in the "blind spot" of the bus driver, i.e. where he cannot see them, right in front of his bus hood. The purpose of such a fence is thus to compel the children to walk around it, and consequently around the blind spot of the bus driver.
One such safety fence is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,541 issued in 1987 to J. H. Wicker. The fence or control arm of this patent is mounted on a frame attached to the bumper of the school bus, and comprises a U-shaped rod that pivots from a retracted position adjacent the frame to an extended position in which said rod projects outwardly away from the bumper. The pivoting axis is positioned at the end of the bumper which is nearer the front door of the school bus. When a child is to be picked up or dropped off, the arm is extended from its retracted position to its extended position so that the child will not walk in the driver's blind spot. The problem with this control arm is that it is still possible for a child to inadvertently roam the area at the front of the bus by accessing it from the side on which there is no control arm, and thus the danger is still present of an accident happening between the bus and a school student.
Canadian patent application No. 2,075,213, published on Feb. 6, 1994, to the present applicant, shows a safety fence that extends frontwardly from the bumper of the school bus by means of two hydraulic cylinders. The outer extremities of the piston rods of the cylinders hold a frame member on which is vertically installed a wire netting. An accordion-like netting also extends parallel to each cylinder, originating over each end of the bumper. The netting encases the cylinders and prevents easy passage to the blind spot at the front end of the school bus. A problem with this invention is that the long cylinders are heavy, and thus the power needed to operate the system is much greater and the production cost is higher. Also, the long cylinders can be possibly dangerous if a child puts his hands on them during their operation.